As the city of Mumbai is lashed with heavy downpour since morning, many people chose to take a share-cab to reach the workplace. For a woman named Ushnota Paul, it was the worse experience ever. Ushnota’s co-passenger, a fellow woman turned hostile and started abusing, harassing her. The fight took a turn for the worse when the woman even attacked physically attacked Ushnota. Although Ushnota has filed a complaint with the police, Uber has refused to divulge the details of the accused passenger.Ushnota Paul is a reputed journalist working in Mumbai’s Lower Parel area. She took to her Twitter account to raise the concern and has described the entire horrific incident. According to Ushnota’s tweets, the co-passenger was abusive from the start and she was arguing for paying the ‘most’ and yet getting dropped the last. While Ushnota tried to ignore her in the start, but the woman started abusing and passed racist remarks. On trying to click her picture, she snatched the phone and threatened she’d break it. Eventually, there was a crowd gathering but the woman managed to flee off.

Ushnota immediately filed the police complaint and while the police were co-operative, Uber has refused to divulge details stating ‘customer privacy.’ It is appaling kind of behaviour and needs to be immediately acted upon. Uber should ideally co-operate with the police and help to find the woman to take action. A lot of people today use share-cabs to commute and with an incident like this, the question of woman’s safety once again comes to fore. As Ushnota writes, “I have been physically & verbally assaulted in broad daylight by a complete stranger. The whole back seat of @Uber is full of clumps of my hair,I have injury on my face & hands & I’m definitely psychologically scarred. I take Uber twice everyday & yet I know now that I’m not safe.”

Uber has replied to Ushnota’s tweets but it looks more like an automated reply. While the police are trying their best, it would be easier if Uber realises the seriousness of the matter and takes quick action. As one of her tweets sums up, “You guys must help Mumbai Police in providing her identity since I have already filed an FIR against her. She should be banned form Uber because if it happened to me today, it can happen to anyone.” We hope Uber takes notice and co-operates so that immediate and stringent action is taken.